Saturday, June 11, 2022
Temperatures start to heat up by the month of June, but I was convinced to sign up for the Rap River Run. Several of my fellow TBR members had agreed to take part in this fun filled event earlier in the year. With a very runner friendly price, a great location and a nice cause, this was a good race to do. Originally, we had about 8 members sign up for the race but due to various circumstances, we wound up with only 5 of us running it.
The week leading up to the race date was promising tons of rain for the race. This was a major concern as the last time this event took place they were basically flooded out by the heavy rains and thunderstorms. Fast forward to Saturday, the weather was good with no rain at all. Temperatures were about 73 which was not too bad at this time of the year. Most of us were doing the 10k which started at a church near the huge city circle which housed the city pond as well as the pavilion/field hosting the race. Roughly 1000 people were signed up for the 10k race so it was a bit congested at the start of the race. At the sound of the bullhorn, we were off.
This Rap River Run is one of the more scenic races in the area. The first two miles took us through some tree-lined, downtown New Port Richey and eventually led us to the beautiful neighborhoods with many homes that looked like they were part of the historical registry. There was plenty of room on the streets and a lot of it was downhill. Volunteers did an excellent job of handing out water at the water stops as well as cheering us along the race route. I took off a little faster than intended but eventually settled down to a more casual pace. It was nice to enjoy the scenery of this race and I noted that I wasn’t the only one doing it. This run attracted runners from all ages so there were many times you might see a septuagenarian running side by side with a preteen runner!
This was a point-to-point race that did have one interior loop during the first 3 miles. One nice thing about the course design was that it gave the runner multiple opportunities to be seen by family and friends as we ran the route. The last two miles took us past an area that looked like a pier which provided a nice little breeze for the finishing journey. Coming to the finish, there was a lot of cheering and again a lot of support for incoming runners. Volunteers provided water, medals, and a wet towel for
each runner.
Another fun thing about this race was there were SO many people that I knew from the running community doing this event. There was a big push to involve the various running groups in the surrounding areas in the race as there was a competition to see who had the most signed up runners. After crossing the finish line, I made my way to the pavilion where there was plenty of pasta, hot dogs, oranges, bananas, Celsius energy drinks, Yahoos and water. The various vendors were also giving out merchandise to the runners. The awards ceremony was pretty extensive with age groups up to 80+
getting awards 3 deep. They also had team awards which team Run Fit won with about 79 registered runners, beating out other groups like Hillsborough Harriers, Run Tampa, and Suncoast Striders. Overall, a well-organized event with beautiful medals, nice shirts, awesome awards and plenty of food and drinks. I would highly recommend this event to all.